At Clinical Accelerator, we are getting excited about the European Society of Cardiology conference, which is to be held in Barcelona next week and has the theme “innovation and the heart”.

The excitement focuses on the late-breaking trial results of the hotline sessions. These are expected to start with a peak in the Sunday morning hotline session, when PARADIGM HF and NECTAR HF will take the spotlight.

PARADIGM HF is most anticipated. Program Chair, Dr Keith Fox (University of Edinburgh) tipped it to be one of the ‘biggest trials of the congress’.

The study, which had enrolled 8400 patients, was terminated early after patients receiving Novartis’ innovative heart failure treatment, the angiotensin receptor neprilysin LCZ696, survived demonstrably longer and were less often hospitalized in relation to heart failure than those assigned to the comparator angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor.

PARADIGM HF will be followed by the NECTAR HF trial, which assessed the novel technique of vagal stimulation for treating systolic heart failure.

Program Chair Dr Keith Fox (University of Edinburgh, Scotland) told Heartwire that the New England Journal of Medicine had shown interest in PARADIGM HF and he believed it would be “one of the largest trials of the congress”. He also called the vagal stimulation employed in NECTAR AF “a very novel approach”.

The Sunday afternoon hotline session is filled with reports of the ODYSSEY trial, assessments of the PCSK9 inhibitor alirocumab in high-risk patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia receiving maximal statins. An early report detailed positive results with the low-density lipoprotein lowering drug versus an active comparator.

Delegates can look forward to the heart failure devices and innovations hotline session on Monday morning when the EuroECO presentation will discuss home monitoring of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) and it’s economics.

Those are just a few of many high impact clinical studies to be presented at the ESC. Clinical Accelerator will be attending the congress in Barcelona. We look forward to seeing you there!